


by sun and candlelight

by cynical_optimist



Series: let me count the ways (lolifem) [3]
Category: Lovely Little Losers, Nothing Much to Do
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Cuddling, F/F, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Sleepy love confessions, cheating exes, pretty much just fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-24
Updated: 2016-02-24
Packaged: 2018-05-23 00:03:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6098316
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cynical_optimist/pseuds/cynical_optimist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“’Course,” Meg answers. “That’s obvious. You’re my best friend, silly.”<br/>“Well, yeah,” Freddie says. “And you're mine. But I know you want someone to spend your life with.”<br/>Meg yawns, not opening her eyes. She can feel herself drifting away, feel the fury and pain fading into blissful unawareness. “I’ll spend my life with you.”</p><p>-</p><p>day three: childhood friends</p>
            </blockquote>





	by sun and candlelight

**Author's Note:**

> Completely unedited, so sorry.
> 
> Title from "How Do I Love Thee?" by Elizabeth Browning.

Meg doesn’t remember a time before she knew Freddie Kingston. From her very first memory, all of three years old and marching around in her mother’s heels, her redheaded neighbour and best friend had been there, laughing in the background, Meg’s mother’s best hat falling into her eyes. Meg can’t imagine a life without the late nights at each other’s houses and long days talking and advice and shameless help with school. She can’t imagine a life without Freddie in it, without the most important person in her life next to her.

“Freds?” asks Meg one day as they both sit on Freddie’s bed, Meg using her friend’s thigh as a pillow as she ignores her homework. She’s only fifteen, and Mr Caps never minds if students do it during class anyway.

“Hm?” replies Freddie, who is two years older and much more committed to her homework and her schedule. She’s a nerd, honestly, but it’s something that Meg loves about her. She always helps Meg with the assignments she procrastinated too much, as well, so that’s just another plus.

Meg huffs. “I think I’m going to break up with Robbie.” She swallows, looks away, hating how the words _hurt_ , somehow, even through their catharsis.

“Oh?” Freddie puts her book down, and shifts so that she’s looking down at Meg. “ _Oh_. Why?”

“He cheated again.” The words come out smaller than she’d intended. She should work on that, in future; she wants all her words, all of herself, to be so big she cannot be dismissed, cannot be ignored and pushed to the side. “He was tagged in a post by a friend of his. Something about a cheating girlfriend? I don’t know, it was pretty shady. I checked out her profile and she seems really sweet and stuff. But like, it’s not even the first time he’s done it, so.”

“I’m sorry,” Freddie says.

“Not your fault, babes.” Meg forces herself to shrug. “I mean, I get that I can’t be there all the time, but like… I don’t know, I guess I just thought it was enough for him? Like, I was good enough for him? Good enough for his love?” She can feel the tears coming, knows she’ll let them out later, and that Freddie will probably be holding her through it. For now, though, Meg focuses on her anger, sitting heavy in her ribcage. “He called you some pretty terrible names, too. He’s an asshole, so good riddance.” Her voice doesn’t even shake on the last words, which is an achievement.

“Good riddance,” repeats Freddie firmly. “I told you he was an asshole, anyway.”

“No, you didn’t,” Meg protests, sitting up. “I wouldn’t have dated him if you did.”

Freddie sputters, cheeks tinting. “I didn’t—you –” She takes a breath. “I warned you against dating guys you met over the internet.”

“Yeah,” Meg sighs. She lays her lead back down on Freddie’s thigh, likes the comfort being next to her best friend provides. “I mean, if my parents had decided to move to Auckland instead, maybe I’d have known him properly.”

“Hm,” Freddie says, and her fingers start carding through Meg’s hair, a little awkward at first, then smoothly. “Would you have preferred that?”

Meg’s eyes begin to drift closed of their own accord, the movement of Freddie’s hand in her hair soft and soothing. “Wouldn’t have met you,” she says, emotional exhaustion bleeding into physical.

Freddie’s hand pauses and moves away, and Meg whines at the loss of contact. “Really?” Freddie asks, as her hand finds its place in Meg’s hair again. “You’d put meeting me over having a functional relationship with a guy you really like?”

“’Course,” Meg answers. “That’s obvious. You’re my best friend, silly.”

“Well, yeah,” Freddie says. “And you're mine. But I know you want someone to spend your life with.”

Meg yawns, not opening her eyes. She can feel herself drifting away, feel the fury and pain fading into blissful unawareness. “I’ll spend my life with you.”

“But like…” Freddie sputters again. “Like, romantically.”

“Yeah,” Meg says. She’s almost completely gone, and there’s a muffled, sleepy part of her that’s very glad she’s already come out to Freddie, or this would be an especially awkward conversation.

“Oh,” Freddie says. She’s silent for a few moments, and then, “I’d like that.”

Another yawn. “Cool.”

“We should probably talk about this.”

“Mmh, yeah.”

“You should give yourself time to get over Robbie first.”

“… douchebag.”

Freddie huffs a laugh. “Yeah, that one.”

“‘M sleeping now.”

“Okay.” Freddie’s hand pauses for a moment, then Meg feels the soft, warm press of her lips on her forehead.

“Feels nice. You’re nice.”

“Thanks, Meg,” Freddie is laughing again. She stops, suddenly. “This will work, won’t it? I don’t want to lose you because we dated.”

Meg shushes her. That’s a serious question, and seriously questions are left strictly for when both parties are wide awake and functional. “In the morning.”

Freddie hums in agreement. “Hey, do you mind if you move, just a little bit?”

“Ugh, why?” Freddie is comfortable and Meg never wants to leave. It would be wonderful if this moment could last forever. Like a photograph.

Meg feels Freddie’s full body shrug. “I want to lay down with you. I can do my homework later.”

“Kay.”

They shift, Meg opening her eyes to Freddie’s bright red but smiling face, and settle curled together, Meg’s face on Freddie’s collarbone.

“You are good enough,” Freddie whispers. “Just, by the way.”

“Thanks.”

“Of course.”

“You’re good enough, too.”

“That’s a very nice thing to say, Meg.”

“Night,” Meg says.

“Afternoon,” corrects Freddie, but she wraps her arms around Meg. “We’ll talk about this when we wake up.”

When they wake up. That’s an odd thought. Meg will probably panic and curse her exhausted, semi-heartbroken self for idiotic confessions at the most inopportune of times. For now, though, she is wrapped up in the warmth of Freddie’s embrace, and she is drifting off to sleep, a smile on her lips.


End file.
